This invention relates to hand-held vacuum cleaners and in particular to hand-held vacuum cleaners having an attachment connector.
AC powered hand-held vacuum cleaners have become increasingly popular in the past several years. Such cleaners are particularly useful where conventional larger size vacuum cleaners such as large canister or upright types are inconvenient for the user. Such hand-held vacuum cleaners are particularly useful in cleaning stairs and furniture. Examples of these AC powered hand-held vacuum cleaners are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,700,428 and 4,891,861.
Very often it is desirable to extend the working air flow path of the cleaner by attaching a hose or other attachment to the cleaner. Heretofore, many of the commercially available hand-held vacuum cleaners have required that the user disengage or remove the drive belt employed to operate the rotary brush of the cleaner making the rotary brush inoperable. Removal of the drive belt has generally been relatively time consuming and inconvenient to the user.
A connector for attaching the hose to a hand-held vacuum cleaner is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,428. The connector illustrated in this patent is relatively costly to manufacture and is not as simple to use as might be desired.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a connector for a hand-held vacuum cleaner which permits an accessory to be readily connected to the cleaner without requiring any removal of the drive belt.